Art Toronto | Booth A30 +
Project Space |Martha Sturdy | A31

October 26 - 29, 2023
Metro Toronto Convention Centre

Gallery Artists

Annie Briard

Cameron McLellan

Tiko Kerr

Monserrat Duran Muntadas

Amber Frid- Jimenez

George Vergette, Allan Switzer, Andrew Kent

Bernadette Phan

Sebastian Maquieira

Valérie d. Walker

Jim Threapleton

Jan Wade

---

Project Space | A31 | Martha Sturdy

Martha Sturdy to unveil new monumental bronze sculptural works at Art Toronto, sending a powerful environmental message through melancholic beauty.
As a follow up to Martha Sturdy: All Fall Down, an evocative exhibition which took place in late 2022 at the West Vancouver Museum, Martha Sturdy will present a series of never-before-seen sculptures.

With an unsettling magnetism, the latest works in the All Fall Down series invite audiences to immerse themselves in an installation of sculptures cast in bronze. Centered on natural cycles of growth, death, decay, and renewal, the strikingly eerie works incorporate crumbling ancient cedar logs, salvaged from a once fire-stricken stand of trees at Martha’s farm in Pemberton, British Columbia. Selected for their raw, undulating forms and split to reveal grain, composition and life-cycle, the inherent drama and imperfection of the wood is heightened by tempering and treatment, before being cast in bronze and coated in a rich black patina.

Through the span of her career, Martha’s sculptural practice has focused on natural monumentality - this time in a jarring move away from her polished minimalism to a more raw and rugged practice. Her own connection to the Pacific Northwest has fostered a fundamental sensitivity towards the natural world and an appreciation of its complex relationship to human activity, as evident in this latest work.
An accompanying All Fall Down publication was developed in conjunction with the West Vancouver Art Museum and features essays by Robin Laurence and Craig Burnett.
About Martha Sturdy
Martha Sturdy is a contemporary sculptural artist from Vancouver, BC, on Canada’s West Coast. Her artwork includes wall, resin, brass, standing steel, salvaged wood, and coveted wearable sculpture. She received her BFA from Emily Carr University of Art + Design, where she was later granted an Honorary Doctor of Letters in 2006. Her work has caught the appreciation of collectors, artists and designers internationally, and she has been featured in American, Italian and French Vogue, Wallpaper and Architectural Digest. In 2002 she was presented with a Golden Jubilee Award by the Governor General for her achievements internationally as a Canadian artist and in 2005 she was inducted into the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (RCA) .